At age 24 Alec knew that, even though his life had not been easy, it could have been much harder. He could work himself to death and starve for a day or two, but at the end of it, they had a roof over their head and they had each other. Well, the first they had up until that morning. He knew Jace had meant well. He hadn't wanted to worry Alec more. But really ANY notice before the day the landlord had come to kick them out of the ratty apartment they had been staying in would have been great. It wasn't like they owned much, and fortunately Jace had had the foresight to call Clary, who in turn had called her friend Simon, who had a rather large van.

So, they spent the whole day desperately packing stuff in the van, selling what they could not keep and driving back to salvage as much of the ramshackle furniture from ending up in the hands of the landlord. Alec and Izzy had been justifiably pissed with their brother, but the situation had so soon demanded action that there really was no space for being angry on the day. They were homeless.

They were lucky that Izzy's friend Raphael was general manager of a hotel and would allow them to room-hop for as long as he could manage, until they could find a new place to live. It was only possible through Jace's staying with Clary at her dorm. That way Alec, Izzy and Max could squeeze themselves in even a singles room for the night and neither Alec nor Izzy were tempted to murder the blond in his sleep.

Alec had known that the landlord hadn't liked them. They came off as a group of students and came with similar complaints. They were noisy, came in at all hours and gave a bad reputation to the building. While all that wasn't necessarily untrue, there was, as per usual more to the story. The story people never seemed to care for however, and it was the third apartment they had been kicked out of in the past six years.

'Alec?' Alec looked up from the paper he had been scouring. 'You really need to eat something.' Placing a plate with a sandwich, the only food he would ever trust when prepared by Izzy, in his hands. The concerned eyes of his sister were trained on his face as she sat down on the armrest of the chair he was using. Max was occupying the stool in front of the desk and the armchair was the only one in the room.

'Thanks, Izzy.' He put the paper down, rubbed his exhaustion from his eyes and picked up the sandwich.

'You look really tired.'

'I know,' he replied. 'It'll be over once I find us a new apartment and we can all get a proper night sleep again.' Concern fell over her face and he pulled her in to press a kiss against her temple.

'Are you finding anything?'

'Most people are offering flatshares, but I doubt they're going to want four young adults to join them. Did you hear anything from Jace?'

'Yeah, he's asking around for sublets at the colleges and apparently is getting Clary to pull some strings. I want to be mad at him, but he's really trying to make up for it.' Alec sunk his teeth once again into the sandwich. What he wouldn't give for access to a kitchen at this point, but honestly, any place they could actually live again would be great.

'I can take the air mattress tonight, if you want me to,' but Alec immediately shook his head.

'You and Max take the bed. You are impossible when you haven't had your beauty sleep.' At this Izzy pouted, but couldn't find the words to make a witty comment back. He pulled her in for a one armed hug for a moment before letting her go and she walked over to see if Max needed any help with his homework for school.

Their situation was bad. Alec knew that better than he would ever let on to his siblings. He always took the air mattress under some pretense, but really, it was so Izzy would not notice him leave or come back in the middle of the night. Alec worked a rotating schedule of three jobs several times a week. If she ever found out, she was going to insist on carrying some of the burden and Alec just couldn't. He couldn't bear the thought of her having to carry any more.

He would work it out, as he always did.

The apartment was exactly the stroke of luck they needed at the point that without it they were going to drown. Raphael couldn't cover for them anymore after nearly four weeks of staying in different rooms of the DuMort and was asking them to find other accommodation within a week. Of course Izzy pleaded, but Alec knew that the man wouldn't have asked them to leave if there had been any option of them staying. Raphael was quite attached to Izzy.

The apartment was run down and had a significant issue with crime in the neighbourhood, but with enough space for the four of them, affordable rent and less chance of noise complaints, Alec was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. It had a kitchen with a leaking tap and a seating area where they could put one or two couches if they could find some second hand ones. There were three bedrooms so that Izzy and Jace could each have some space of their own and Alec could be there for Max when he had nightmares, even though that hadn't happened in almost two years. Max was still comforted by Alec being close by and for as long as Max had no privacy issue, Alec was happy to oblige.

They moved in as soon as they could and the same afternoon Jace fixed them a free second hand couch and table from a college friend of Clary's. Alec was not particularly fond of the redhead who seemed to be actively oblivious to their situation and kept on encouraging Jace to take some classes with her. Jace, however, was very much in love with her and Izzy liked her cheerfulness, so Alec didn't complain. At times like this she could also be rather resourceful, which he was never opposed to.

Alec had to work at the coffee shop as they were moving, so he couldn't help his siblings. But since it was a weekend, they managed to rope in some of their friends and Alec wasn't too worried about the outcome. He'd see the result when he'd get back.

Rubbing his eyes and suppressing a yawn he tried to focus his attention on the receipts he had been trying to process into the system. Dull as it was, paperwork was his favourite part of the job. Alec was not comfortable talking to people, or making coffee for that matter. But he was a whiz at paperwork, and could carry more heavy trays than any two of his coworkers together, so the manager let his aloof personality slide. After all, Alec was an incredibly hard worker.

There was some commotion out front that caught Alec's ears and raised the hairs on his neck. But he heard the voice of Lydia intervening and almost determined himself to ignore it when Aline rushed in back.

'Alec, there's a fight.' No more needed to be said. Dropping whatever he was holding in his hands Alec raced out, his long legs quickly getting him past Aline into the front of the shop. The sight that met him was most hostile. Lydia laid sprawled on the floor, surrounded by broken cups and holding her face with a pained expression. She seemed, however, to be a victim of the situation between two others.

A large brute of a man, about as tall and definitely wider than Alec was towering over an extravagantly dressed man, and holding his arm aggressively. The extravagantly dressed man seemed to be determined to break free, but the larger man caught his other wrist and now definitely had a firm hold.

'Sir,' Alec's voice carried loud and clear. 'Please, refrain from harassing the other customers.' The large man's eyes snapped up at Alec.

'I'll treat my boyfriend however I damn well please.'

'Ex,' the smaller man now piped up in a surprisingly laissez faire attitude considering his current predicament. 'And it was rather a fling than a relationship. Really nothing to get so worked up over.' Rage filled the larger man's features and he looked about to hurl the smaller man across the room. It was however that at this point Alec's lightning reflexes served their purpose. Before really anyone realised what was going on a jab at the large man's arm had him almost completely release his grip. A subsequent blow to the abdomen, a sweep and surprised struggle and Alec had the man pinned to the ground.

'Could someone get Aldertree?' he spoke calmly before turning to look up at the man he had just rescued. 'Did you want to get the police involved and press charges?' His eyes met a pair of honey brown ones and Alec felt his breath get stuck in his throat. The extravagantly dressed man was unlike anyone he had seen before. Made up and dressed in confidence, wearing an amused, if slightly surprised smile on his face, in spite of what had just taken place.

'I'd much prefer to see you manhandle him out of here,' the rescuee responded with a hint of mirth and mischief in his voice. Alec raised a confused eyebrow at that, but that was the point that Aldertree came in and started issuing orders. Alec's coworkers started running around to follow them as Alec forced the subdued man to get up and marched him out the door with the information that he was permanently banned from the shop.

'Well handled, Alec,' Aldertree said uncharacteristically appreciative. 'I knew I'd hired you for some reason.' And there was the manager they all despised. With a nod Alec cast a look over the room. His colleagues seemed to have a handle on the situation, apologising and handing out free refills, so he slinked into the back to continue sorting out the receipts.

He did not notice the honey brown eyes on his back and the soft whisper under breath: 'Alec.'

Three weeks into living in the new apartment Alec had fallen back into routine. His postal route was longer in the morning, but his commute in the evening shorter. They had found the cheapest grocery store and met their neighbours. Alec wasn't really concerned about the single mother of two to their right, but he was slightly uncomfortable with the hippie to the left. However, he didn't dare say anything, because once again removing themselves was not an option. For that he'd need to make more money.

'Alec, he's here again.' Alec rolled his eyes at Lydia's comment, but couldn't help his eyes drift over to the table near the counter where indeed the extravagantly dressed man was sitting. Alec had not thought much of it when the day after the incident the man, dressed once again in some showy outfit had sat at that table, ordered a latte and some pastry and worked at his laptop. In fact, Alec had not thought anything of it until his coworkers had started giggling to him about two weeks after the incident.

The man always came during Alec's shift, ordered the same coffee, a different pastry and sat at the same table doing a variety of work for a varying amount of time before getting up abruptly and practically running off. It was peculiar, Alec would admit, but he had been used to peculiar, so he didn't mind. His coworkers, however, had occasionally spoken to him. In particular Lydia had been rather friendly with him.

It was thus through his colleagues talking about the man that Alec had learned more about him. Apparently his name was Magnus Bane, he worked odd hours, was very enthusiastic about fashion, very bisexual and crushing on Alec. Although Alec was pretty sure that Lydia had made the last one up. He was not out to his coworkers, or really anyone other than his family, so the comment had been mostly teasing.

Alec tried not to mind her comment that if he couldn't get a girlfriend he could always consider batting for the other team, but it stung slightly. It wasn't that he didn't want to be in a relationship… Things were just… Complicated. Always.

He had known he was gay from the moment Izzy had told him what it entailed when he was sixteen and two of her male friends had just gotten together. Izzy had been over the moon to have been able to help Alec, and very soon Jace had also been involved, but at Alec's request they had kept it from their parents. And it had never been an issue, because while he knew he was gay, there wasn't any particular person he had been interested in. Ever.

So, just because Magnus was easy on the eye and had a way about him that absolutely fascinated Alec. Nothing would ever happen. Instead Alec turned back to the coffee order he'd been preparing, poignantly ignoring Lydia.

'Oh, come on Alec. You know I'm only teasing.' He knew that, but he was tired. He'd worked both day and night shift for the past two days and had gotten in only a two hour nap yesterday before his night hauling job. In fact, he hadn't even had time to eat anything today, since Aldertree was very strict about that on the job and traffic had made his paper round take longer than usual.

'Alec? Are you okay? You're looking rather pale.'

'I'm fine,' but Alec could see his vision blurring. 'Could you finish this one up. I gotta-.' His addled brain could not come up with a valid excuse fast enough, so instead he just pointed at the back and let Lydia take over without hearing her reply. The world was spinning and he wasn't even sure if he'd actually made it to the back before everything turned black.

He came to to blurred faces, muffled voices and the cold hard floor pressing against his back. Immediately he tried to sit up, but the noise increased and hands pressed him down. Slowly his vision started coming back to him as he blinked a few times.

'Alec, thank god. Are you okay?' Aline was leaning over him with a worried look on her face.

'I'm fine. What happened?' Carefully he worked himself into a sitting position.

'You just dropped to the floor, completely unconscious and wouldn't wake up. We were just considering calling an ambulance when you came to. Here, drink this.' Lydia kneeled next to them and handed him a glass of water which he carefully sipped at.

'Did you not get enough sleep?' Aline asked.

'Possibly,' Alec downed the water and gave black the glass to Lydia before attempting to get up, but being stopped by Aline.

'You need to get some rest.'

'I'm fine. I'll get some sleep after my shift.'

'This is not healthy, Alec. You need to go home.'

'What I really need is a proper full time job that pays enough to live off,' Alec shook off the daze and got to his feet. 'Thanks.' He only had an hour left on his shift, he could make it through that, he had to. Aline and Lydia were tiptoeing around him, purposely messing up receipts just to keep him in the back, doing the paperwork he was best at. He didn't notice them breathe a sigh of relief when they could give him his share of their tips before he left.

'Lydia?' Magnus waved her over from the table he had been sitting at.

'Yes, Mr Bane,' she came over just as he closed his laptop. 'What can I do for you?'

'I told you, it's just Magnus,' he said with a friendly smile. 'I hope you don't mind my asking, but what just happened to Alexander?'

Lydia cast a look out the window to where Alec was collecting his bike: 'I can't say for sure, but I suspect he's once again overworking himself. He just passed out from exhaustion.'

'"Once again"? This happened before?'

'Yeah,' she nodded. 'Shortly after he came to work here about a year ago. He was terrified Aldertree would fire him, so he begged us not to tell anyone. It got better after a bit. But Alec is always working multiple jobs, so I guess his schedule is just bad right now. It would be good for him if he got a stable full time job, instead of all these part time gigs.'

'Do you know anything about his situation?'

Lydia shook her head: 'He doesn't talk much. He only ever talks about his siblings, who he lives with, and work.'

'You said before that he's very good with fixing the receipts?'

'Yeah, he's super awkward with the customers, but he's really good at paperwork and organisation. Why are you asking?'

Magnus had a thoughtful expression on his face: 'What kind of work would he be looking for?'

'I wouldn't know,' Lydia shrugged. 'He gets really uncomfortable talking about that with any chance of Aldertree being able to hear it.' At this point Lydia was called back to the counter to deal with a new influx of customers and Magnus sat pensively staring at his cup of coffee. This could possibly be the solution to many of his problems. Reflexively he checked the time and nearly knocked over his coffee. He was late, again.

On monday the coffee shop was closed and aside from his paper round Alec slept the day away before picking up his little brother Max from school to hang out at the apartment and teach him to cook something at his request. Jace and Izzy showed up after work and class respectively and Alec couldn't help but smile at his siblings antics. He was often so busy and tired, and with the others having irregular schedules as well, it wasn't often that he would get to sit to dinner with all of them together. These were really the moments that all made it worth the effort he was putting in. As long as his family was fine, he would be as well.

He slipped out after Max had fallen asleep and Izzy and Jace had retreated to their rooms, quiet as a mouse to get to his nighttime job. His siblings did not approve of him working so much, so he had tried to keep this one a secret. Five days a week, hauling heavy items for six hours. It took its toll on his body, but if it kept a roof over their head. Six days a week bringing round the post at the crack of dawn for four hours weaving through traffic on his bike. It was dangerous, but if it put food on the table. Six days a week brewing coffee and serving dry pastries to people with more money than was good for them. He hated it, but if it kept clothes on their backs. It was all worth it. Right?